Water closets, also called toilets, are waste disposal devices commonly installed in most bathrooms. These kinds of plumbing appliances generally have a water storing receptacle called a water tank that is attached to a siphon seat-shaped bowl called toilet bowl. Periodically, waste is removed from the toilet bowl by flushing, thereby allowing water to drain from the water tank through the toilet bowl and into a waste drainpipe. In order to work, however, the toilet bowl must be connected to the waste drainpipe by fluid carrying conduits. Typically, the toilet bowl will sit flat on a floor and connect with a water closet outer flange. The water closet outer flange in turn connects with conduits leading to a waste drainpipe.
Existing toilet flanges often include a conduit portion for passing the waste fluids through the floor (upon which the toilet sits), a number of openings to fasten the flange to the floor, and other openings to attach the toilet bowl to the flange itself. Additionally, there may be an appropriate seat for a toilet seal, which typically may be made either from wax or by a relatively high-density foam or rubber.
Toilets are installed and located in accordance with interior decorating aesthetics of the bathroom. The location of the toilet is determined by the location of the waste drainpipe in the floor, and logically, this will determine the location of the toilet bowl discharge and hence the location of the outlet flange. However, in making openings through floors and in making the connection between the toilet bowl discharge and the waste drainpipe, there is some likelihood that the toilet bowl opening will be in an awkward or inconvenient place. An example would be where the toilet discharge opening has to be directly above a floor beam or too close to a wall. To overcome such problems there have been provided, in the past, offset flanges for toilet bowls. Examples of such offset flanges include the flanges depicted in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,967,836 and 6,052,839. These prior offset flanges attempt to overcome the problems associated with positioning of the toilet bowl outlet pipe by positioning the conduit at one end of the flange adjacent to one lateral edge of the flange. In this way, the toilet bowl outlet pipe can be positioned adjacent to a beam or tight against a wall or other obstacle without much inconvenience.
A problem associated with the previously described apparatuses is that even though they provide some flexibility, both are comprised of rigid connecting conduits, and therefore provide limited flexibility and depth connection distances. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,836 has a maximum offset of 1¾″ (one and three quarter inches), which cannot be exceeded; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,052,839 requires a larger maximum offset. But the problem with the apparatus described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,052,839 is its minimum offset. More specifically, because it has a connecting rigid conduit in the shape of an elbow, its use is limited to angled connections. Moreover, this shape requires that the vertical distance between the toilet bowl discharge and the waste drain pipe outlet should be at least about 5–6 inches deep.
Because of the rigidity of the conduit portions of the closet flanges that are currently available, there are several problems related with offset, angled and uneven installations. Most professionals who deal with these kinds of problems turn to modifying the waste drain line or change the toilet for a bigger or smaller one, depending on the case. Those solutions are expensive and can cause delays in the installation process.
To address these problems, an improved water closet flange is hereby disclosed. The improved flange has a flexible conduit (i.e. sleeve) portion for carrying fluids and connecting to the waste drain pipe outlet, and such a flexible sleeve will facilitate its installation even between offset, uneven or angular outlets.